


just like a rainbow (you know you set me free)

by icemachine



Category: Doom Patrol (TV)
Genre: Ffff, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Unconventional Relationship, it gets a boyfriend and you still havent had sex in like 50 years, poor larry imagine you have a being living inside of u and
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-14
Updated: 2019-05-14
Packaged: 2020-03-05 07:20:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18823834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icemachine/pseuds/icemachine
Summary: Despite the fact that, to Larry, the thought of Flex Mentallo and the Negative Spirit dating—or worse, being intimate—is nearly vomit-inducing, it is a topic that they cannot continue to avoid.





	just like a rainbow (you know you set me free)

“So,” Larry says; three minutes ago he stealthily stole the television remote from the arm rest on Flex’s chair, and it brings him a pang of guilt when he powers the device off. Still: “We need to talk.”

 

It takes Flex a few seconds to recover from the interruption—he had been  _ really  _ into the newest episode of Days of our Lives, like, to a  _ terrifying  _ amount—and it makes Larry continually unsettled. This is an important matter. Despite the fact that, to Larry, the thought of Flex Mentallo and the Negative Spirit dating—or worse, being intimate—is nearly vomit-inducing, it is a topic that they cannot continue to avoid.

 

Hammerhead, of course, could have been lying when she told Larry she saw the two of them in a, to quote, “disgusting, gross flirting position” that made her “want to blow her head off”, because Hammerhead is. Hammerhead. She’s Hammerhead, she does things like that. 

 

There’s an inherent knowledge, however, that she isn’t. Larry can feel it; neither of them have said anything, but somehow he  _ knows  _ that there is a truth to the statement. It isn’t the fact that he’s found himself unconscious an increasingly frequent amount of times since Flex arrived, each time with no dreams whatsoever, though that certainly plays a role; it is, instead, a low stomach-churn, a nagging feeling in his subconscious that says  _ yeah, they have feelings for each other. _

 

Which, again: gross. But.

 

“Yeah, sure, bud. What’s up?”

 

“You and the spirit… are you…”

 

“The who?”

 

“The spirit.”

 

Flex looks genuinely confused.

 

“The thing living inside of me?”

 

“Oh! Oh, yeah.” His lips curl to the side. ‘Wait, why do you call him that?”

 

“Because he doesn’t have a name?” Larry stops, considers it for a moment. So, apparently the spirit is male. Okay. Stranger things have happened. (If he had known Flex liked men—). “Or, wait, does he?”

 

“You’ve been calling Keeg ‘the spirit’ for sixty years, haven’t you.”

 

Larry’s first thought: what the fuck kind of a name is  _ Keeg.  _ Then he remembers that the spirit---Keeg---isn’t human, or anything conceivable, and it makes a little bit of sense. Larry pities him for a moment, until he realizes that Flex is literally the only person who can hear him, and therefore one of the only people who can call him by name, and - well - they don’t seem to be on a judgemental basis.

 

“Maybe,” Larry says, stupidly. “Look, I have a question, and I need you to be honest with me.”

 

“Okay…”

 

“Are you and… Keeg… do you, um….”

 

He’s going to vomit in his bandages.

 

“What’s wrong?”

 

“Nothing, just… are you and Keeg…. involved?”

 

Flex laughs, and his laughter is loud and encompassing - it sounds like a lion’s roar, an amused chuckle that Larry cannot decipher. He laughs until his face stiffens. “I don’t know,” he admits.

 

“You don’t know? How do you not know?”

 

“Relationships are  _ hard,  _ okay? You seem to be forgetting that I was stuck in that place for - who even knows how long. I don’t understand anything anymore.”

 

This is the moment that Larry realizes that he’s going to be a marriage counselor for Flex fucking Mentallo and the fucking alien that made his body into some sort of luxury apartment, and, not to channel Cliff, but  _ jesus fucking christ.  _ He thought his life couldn’t get any weirder.

 

“...Tell me what’s going on.”

 

As if Larry understands relationships at a higher level than Flex does.

 

Larry, who literally has not fucked anyone since JFK was the President.

 

This will go well. He wonders if Flex understands that Keeg is listening to their conversation, due to the fact that he lives inside of Larry’s body---a fact that was established several days ago, and yet. 

 

“Well, he keeps coming to see me, and then we’ll spend the day together, and then he just… leaves. Without warning.”

 

“That’s because I will literally die if he stays out of my body for too long. You know that.” Larry pauses, and adds, in a more reassuring tone, “It’s nothing to worry about.”

 

“Okay, well, sometimes he acts… almost ashamed of me. Like he doesn’t want anyone to know we’re… whatever we are.”

 

“That’s probably because everyone else here---look, I know you just met them, but I’ve known them forever. They’re not the best at keeping secrets, or… keeping their thoughts to themselves, at all, actually.”

 

“Oh.”

 

“Look, just tell me: how do you feel about him?”

 

“I think… I like him. A lot.”

 

“There you go. Just tell him that you—”

 

It’s like it was written into a script, a theatrical show; Larry falls over in his chair, and Keeg exits his body. Moves toward Flex, who stands up on impulse; he looks up at Keeg, who floats above him curiously.

 

“Oh,” Flex says, nervous. “Right. You probably heard all of that.”

 

_ I did. _

 

“I should’ve told you. Man, I’m sorry—”

 

_ It’s okay,  _ Keeg says.  _ I can be cryptic at times. _

 

“At times,” Flex laughs. ‘Yeah. But I don’t care. I like it.”

 

Keeg places a hand against Flex’s face, tender.

 

_ Thank you. _

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> someone on tumblr or a discord server idr was like "imagine flex being like have you called him the negative spirit for 60 yEARS????" and i thought that was funny but i can't remember who it was so if that was u lmk and i'll credit u. anyway i'm so soft for these two. i hate it
> 
> pls kudos + comment if you enjoyed ! :)


End file.
